Annealing-furnace.



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APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23. I916- lmggaaa mmm-Mm. 12, was.

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APPLICATION man MAR- 23. ms. 1 58,885. Patented Mar. 12, 1918-.

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- ANNEALING-FURNACE. I

' Application filed March 23, 1916. Serial No. 86,094.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, IRA W'. FoL'rz, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Annealing- Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to annealing fur naces, designed for the burning of coal or other solid fuel, and has for its objects to provide improved means whereby the desired temperatures may be uniformly maintained throughout the furnace and the cost of operation thereof reduced; to provide means for completely consuming all gases distilled from the fuel body, which gases, if not fully consumed, have a harmful action on the metal being annealed in the furnace; to provide annealing furnaces with improved means for pro-heating the air supplied to the various compartments .of the furnace; to provide improved means for obtaining an even supply and uniform distribution of the preheated air throughout the furnace; and to provide improv d means for collecting the gases distilled 1n the fuel burning region of the furnace, mixing heated air therewith and properly delivering the mixture to the combustion or annealing chamber of the furnace to insure its complete combustion.

An illustrative embodiment of this invention is-shown in the accompanying"drawings,

in which- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the furnace taken on the line A-A of Fig. 2. I

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional elevation on the line B B of Fig. 1.

F ig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of an air supply conduit.

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a portion of an air distributing conduit.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional plan View taken on the line CC of. Fig. 2.

Many annealing furnaces in which the annealing chambers thereof are heated by burning a solid fuel in a fire-box located in the furnace are more or less unsatisfactory because the heat is not evenly distrib- I uted and maintained throughout the annealing chamber and also because unconsumed gases are permitted to pass through the an" nealing chamber, to the injury of the cast- Specification of Letters Patent.

I 13 of the fire-box.

Patented Mar. 312, 1918.

ings'therein, unless the same are inclosed in air-tight containers.

Accordingly, one of the purposes of the present design is to provide an annealing furnace in which the combustion is practically uniform throughout the combustion chamber and in which the temperature thereof may be so controlled that the same will not vary more than a few degrees from some predetermined temperature during a considerable period of time and also to provide means for insuring the complete combustion of all gases'which may harm the material being treated in the furnace.

In the construction shown in the drawings, the annealing furnace is formed by the walls 1, 2, and 3, a roofi, and floor all of the usual reinforced brick construction. The front end of the furnace is closed by the temporary brick wall 30 which, as usual, is made removable to permit access to the annealing chamber 17. Adjacent to the wall 1 and preferably at one corner of the furnace, is provided a fire-box 6 having a grate 7 which spans an openings in the floor of the furnace. The ash-pit 9 is provided with the usual door, having means The fire-box is formed by walls 1 and 2v in connection with the side wall 12, a horizontally disposed top wall 13, and a bridge 16; The top wall-'13 is provided with air conduits 13.1, as shown in Fig. 5. These conduits communicate at their rear ends with air inlets or short conduits'132 in the top wall 13,- and areprovided with outlets 13.3 at the front end of the fire-box. The purpose of these conduits is to supply heated air to gases arising from the fuel body on grate 7. Such gases and the heated air mixed therewith, then pass through apertures 15.1 into vertically extending conduits 15 in a battle wall depending from the roof The gases and air mixed therewith are discharged from the lower end i with duct21.3, which communicates with communicate with said spaces and receive air therefrom.

Pre-heated air is supplied to the different compartments of the furnace by air inlet conduits 21 which extend to the rear end of the furnace and communicate with short vertical ducts 21.1. The ducts 21.1 communicate with supply ducts 23 which carry preheated air to a series of distributing conduits 22, the flow of air being as indicated by- -the arrows in Fig. 1. Preheated air is supplied to the space back of the false walls 18 by a vertical duct 21.2 which communicates at its -upper end with one of the ducts 23 and at its lower end with the duct 20, and

said space. The inlet conduits 21. are horizontally disposed along the side-walls 2 and 3 of the annealing'or secondary combustion chamber and the air passing therethrough is heated by the combustion of gases in this chamber. The outer ends of conduits 21 may be provided with dampers in the form of doors 25 for controlling the supply of air to the furnace chambers. One of these doors is shown open in Fig. 1.

The distributing conduits are arranged at intervals along the top of the chamber 17 andare provided with outlet apertures 24 in their lower faces. Air is supplied in uniform quantities to the distributing conduits by graduating the supply pipes 23 in proportion to the number of distributing-conduits supplied.

The products of combustionmay scape from the annealing chamber by providing outlets 2.6 in the side walls of the chamber which communicate with a space 27 beneath the floor 5. The gases pass'from this spac to a chimney by means not shown.

In the operation of the device, the air is drawn in through the inlet conduits 21 and heated as it passes therethrough byt'he combustion of gases in the annealing chamber 17. This heated air is supplied to'the firebox by passing through the apertures in the false walls thereof. Such heated air. is alsosupplied to the annealing or secondary combustion chambers by the distributing conduits 22 which communicate with the inlet conduits by means of the graduated supply ters the vertical conduits 13.2 from the masses space between the side walls of the firebora and the false walls 18. heated while passing through the conduits 13.1 in the ,roof of the firebox. Such. air and gasses mixed therewith enter the inlets 15.1 in 'bafiie wall 14 and then pass down wardly, leaving the baflie wall at a point where flames from the burning fuel sweep around the same, thus insuring good ignition of the mixture. The fuel is thrown to the rear of the fire-box until it is at a higher level than the lower end of the bafiie wall 14, thus causing. the unconsuined gases issuing from the top of the fuel pile to enter the inlets 15.1. The conduits 22 supply. additional heated air at difi'erent points in the combustion chamber for the purpose of bringing about the combustion of the remaining unc'onsumed gases.

Although but one specific embodiment of said conduits communicating with-the space between the sidewalls and false walls of said'firebox and also having a plurality 'of outlets in said annealing chamber.

2. An annealin furnace com risin 2 fire-box, a combustion and pnneaiing chamber, air inlet conduits arranged along. the

,rsides-of'said combustion chamber so as to beheated by the combustion of gases in said chamber, air supply conduits arranged-at opposite sides of said combustion chamber, distributing conduits located at intervals along the top of said combustion chamber transversely to and providing communication between said supply conduits.

3. A furnace, comprising a wall structure formed to provide a fire-box and a combustion chamber, a roof for the fire-box, said roof being provided with an air conduit having an outlet in said fire-box, and a baffle wall depending from said roof of the fire-box having a vertically extending passage therein communicating at its upper end with the fire-box and at its lower end with the combustion chamber. l9igned at Chicago this 16th day of March IRA. W. FOLTZ.

This air is supen M this invention has been herein shown and 

